Greenwood’s pay

State Rep. LaToya Greenwood resigned from her East St. Louis City Council job to focus on her legislative duties. She should also resign from her $93,400 job as District 189 director of human resources. Greenwood said she would miss over 50 percent of the required work days as director. What a joke. If District 189 doesn’t need a full time director, then cut the position entirely. Save the taxpayers some money. I’m sure Greenwood can produce enough expenses from her state representative job to make over $100,000 a year. It’s sickening to see an Illinois lawmaker take advantage of the Illinois taxpayers.

Democrats in trouble

With the win in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, the Republicans have won their fourth special election. For this one, the Democrats put everything they had in it. There was private money flowing into the race from Hollywood and other sources. And they lost. What’s the headline this morning in every liberal publication? Not that the Democrats are in trouble, no. But that the Republicans are in trouble because they didn’t win by much. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it.

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Recycling cash

In regards to the article about the trash fees, why do we have to pay for someone to take recyclables that they are already making money from? Also, what other jobs might I get paid twice for?

Trash fee increase

Seeing Belleville increase our trash fees makes me wonder why they feel like they need to spend millions of dollars on City Hall. It seems like there is no correlation between taxpayers dollars and their spending. One small increase in trash disposal and it triggers an increase but spending millions to refurbish does nothing. BND, what was actually discussed in the decision to move the jail to the bank building? It seems like there’s been a huge waste of money.

Mayor mismanages

Mayor Eckert doesn’t know how to run a city and manage the money from taxpayers. We’ve seen it with the trash fee increase. At the City Council meeting to approve that, there was no discussion about budget or money management. There was just increasing the fee after the fact, which is poor management. We’ve seen it with the real estate that we’re stuck with — like the Bicentennial Park that no one goes to. The Meredith Home that just sits empty unless Patty Gregory uses it for Art on the Square. Voters had a chance to rid themselves of Eckert but they threw it away. You only have yourselves to blame.

Golden study

East-West Gateway approves $3.6 million for a study to determine if turnstiles and fencing for MetroLink stations is feasible. Judging from all the MetroLink crime in the news, I would say yes. But why are these morons spending $3.6 million on a study, when the money could be used to make MetroLink safer? Will the study be delivered in a gold leaf binder with gold pages?

Bankrupt Illinois

Illinois may be the first state to file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the combined Illinois pension plans are underfunded by $251 billion. The Illinois Democratic politicians have either been lying to the people about their pensions or are inexcusably incompetent. Illinois bonds are almost rated to junk status. What does that mean? The taxpayers will be paying higher interest rates to finance a broke state. Besides the $15 billion in unpaid bills, the state owes $700 million in interest on the unpaid bills. Some of the voting clueless should start reading about Puerto Rico, Venezuela or even Greece.

Flies in Swansea

The new Swansea mayor isn’t telling the truth about the village administrator’s contract. I was at the May 1 meeting. There was no discussion about what Joost’s salary should be. The agenda listed a new agreement for him and a resolution to extend his contract by a month. The salary was clearly listed. He seemed like he was willing to sign both. Mayor Leopold said that he wasn’t going to change any staff after he got elected but they’re dropping like flies. Swansea just lost the best administrator that we ever had.

Dead child in garage

What is the world coming to that a dead child is in a trash-filled garage and the landlord never cleaned it out? What is Centreville doing to enforce maintenance, weed removal and encourage absentee owners to clean-up properties?

Belleville’s infamy

I’ve kept up with the expansive coverage of the congressional shooter from Belleville. Is anybody else disturbed that he seemed so normal? I read letters like his in the BND all the time. We’re blaming rhetoric and gun control and everyone else to distract from the fact that one of our own chose to act in such a heinous manner. Make the right choices, people. The nation knows Belleville’s name now and for all the wrong reasons. Let’s turn that around.

Children at risk

East St. Louis Mayor Hicks, the city manager and the police department are aware of the excessive speeding of drivers on 38th Street between State Street and St. Clair. Does a child or adult have to be a victim of the drivers who speed down this street daily before something is done? This is an appeal for help from the city leaders.

Heroin halted

Congratulations to Illinois State Police who stopped all of that heroin from entering our country. A lot of it comes from Mexico and China. We have got to stop the heroin abuse in our country.

Drug money

The Federal government has come up with another expensive act: The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. It is going to cost taxpayers heaven only knows how much money. We have been fighting the drug problem for years before the, “Just Say No” program. Why do we continue to throw money at this? If someone chooses to take heroin and overdoses, why do we have drugs to bring them back to life? Not just once, but over and over again. We’re spending far too much on the losers of the world and doing nothing to reward the people who do the right thing for the right reasons. It explains a lot about why America is on a downward trend, doesn’t it.

Help our neighborhood

Belleville aldermen Tyler and Randle, whatever happened to cleaning up our neighborhood? We have a perpetual yard sale going on Stratford. We have 11 people living in a house on Buckingham and Queen’s Way is a nightmare. Could you do what you promised and help us clean it up?

What about the seniors?

To the Illinois senators who are in support of the American Health Care Act. The act makes cuts in Medicaid. There is also an age tax for seniors aged 50-64. It doesn’t do enough to lower premiums. Seniors on Medicaid and nursing homes, where are they going to go?

Medical crimes

It is sad that a country that took the lead in winning World War II and met the challenge to put a man on the moon can’t figure out a health care system that can serve all of its citizens. Maybe a first step would be basing a program on need rather than the greed of the health care industry. What they charge, especially the pharmaceutical companies, is criminal.

Dogged discussion

Folks are all in a huff over U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s comments on the GOP’s health care bill. They say he said, “You can put a lace collar on a bulldog and it’s still a mean dog.” They say he is contributing to a negative trend in our country called “bulldog shaming.” Seriously, folks? Is this the best you can come up with? We have serious issues in this country. A well-informed public discussion needs to happen about the future of health care and these distractions are doing more harm than good.

Health care hypocrites

The Democrats want at least 10 days to read the health care bill from the Republicans. But, for their own bill under Obama, nobody had a chance to look at it. “Pass it to see what’s in it.” I think they should have had at least 10 days. I think they should have needed that under Obama, too. They’re such hypocrites.

Biased, except local

The BND’s national and international news coverage is biased, unbalanced and inaccurate from McClatchy, Bloomberg, The Washington Post and so on. The value in the BND lies in their own journalists’ exceptional coverage of local news for a readership not as large as it should be. Everyone in the metro-east needs to know what is happening locally and the BND does that very well. For non-local news, there is always the Wall Street Journal and Fox cable news.

Charge those taxes

Why don’t the clerks at the courthouse know how to use a credit card machine? It is ridiculous that you can pay your real estate taxes with a credit card but you have to do it online.

Gutless Democrat

The letter from state Rep. Jerry Costello II about the governor makes me sick. This is a gutless, democratic politician who goes along to get along. He’s going to stand there and tell us that this is all Rauner’s fault? Madigan runs this state. Our politicians do what he says. Take a look at your state legislature and it is democratic in its majority. You’re just like your dad, a total fraud.

Ferguson cowards

The cowards in Ferguson paid the mother, father and step-father of the criminal who was shot because he was trying to take a gun from a policeman. Ferguson made them millionaires. It has been reported in the BND that that family has been living on welfare for years. The BND should investigate to see if they’re going to pay the money back to the taxpayers who supported them for so many years.